BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Western Washington University track & field program returns to competition with its third outdoor meet of the season at the Doris Heritage Track Festival, hosted by Seattle Pacific University, at West Seattle Stadium on Saturday.

Previously known as the Club Northwest Spring Break Open until 2015 before taking on the name of the Doris Heritage Distance Festival for the last two years, the meet is one of the longest-running in the Seattle area. It is named for long-time SPU coach and trailblazing athlete Doris Heritage, a five-time international cross country champion and two-time Olympian.

The Doris Heritage Track Festival will feature all running events except hurdles on the new track surface at the facility. The meet will also have all field events excluding discus, with the pole vault to be held at Husky Track on the University of Washington campus. Live results will be available to follow the action.

The field events are scheduled to get underway at 10 am and continue through the completion of the last scheduled events, with five set to start at 1 pm as the latest scheduled field events. The track events begin at noon and continue through the last scheduled event on the track at 3:15 pm.

WWU has competed at two meets during the outdoor season, opening the season with the University of Puget Sound Ed Boitano Invitational before traveling to the Pacific Lutheran University Open. The indoor season came to a close two weekends ago with senior Jasmine McMullin (Sequim, WA) placing 4th in the triple jump at the NCAA Division II Indoor Championships to net All-America honors.

Through two outdoor meets, five Vikings have recorded NCAA Division II provisional-qualifying marks – three on the women’s side and two on the men’s side. WWU has also added six program top-10 marks with five for the women and one for the men.
At the PLU Open two weekends ago, the Vikings claimed a pair of team wins as the women won eight events and the men took top honors in 11 events. The men were 1st among 15 teams while the women placed 1st among 12 teams.

Junior Alex Barry (Sequim, WA) recorded a provisional-qualifying javelin mark of 60.05m (197-0) to win the event at Pacific Lutheran and join teammate Spencer Claeys (Jr., Silverdale, WA/Central Kitsap/Olympic College) as Vikings to post a provisional qualifier in the event. Claeys recorded a mark of 63.05m (206-10) at Puget Sound to begin the season which ranks No. 8 nationally while Barry’s mark is No. 11.

Two-time GNAC Women’s Field Athlete of the Week Raquel Pellecer (So., Sandy, OR/Portland State) and freshman Natalie Vetto (Kirkland, WA/Lake Washington) have both recorded provisional-qualifying javelin throws during each meet of the season. Pellecer’s best mark came in winning the event at Pacific Lutheran with a throw of 45.00m (147-8) to rank No. 4 nationally while Vetto’s best mark of 43.42m (142-5) ranks No. 10 nationally and came at Puget Sound.

Senior Anna Paradee (Tacoma, WA/Decatur) has a season-best provisional-qualifying pole vault mark of 3.75m (12-3 ½) set at Puget Sound that ranks No. 2 nationally. She also equaled the provisional-qualifying standard in winning the pole vault at Pacific Lutheran.

Pellecer has been recognized as the GNAC Women’s Field Athlete of the Week during consecutive weeks (Feb. 26-March 4 and March 5-11). She was joined by Barry and freshman Bryant Welch (Burien, WA/Mount Rainier) as conference honor recipients for the week of March 5-11. Barry, with his provisional-qualifying javelin effort, earned the Men’s Field Athlete of the Week honor and Welch earned the Men’s Track Athlete of the Week after competing in the 100m (11.28, 3rd of 24), 200m (22.12, 2nd of 28) and 4x100m relay (42.97, 1st of 3) during his outdoor season WWU debut at Pacific Lutheran.

The WWU men are ranked No. 6 in the initial week of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) West Region rankings, as well as 1st among GNAC teams during the young season. The WWU women rank No. 13 regionally and 4th among GNAC teams. Nationally, the WWU women are No. 17 while the men are No. 32.